From left, FC Cincinnati president Jeff Berding, MLS commissioner Don Garber, team owner Carl Lindner III and Mayor John Cranley pose at the conclusion of the event at Rhinegeist Brewery on May 29, the day FC Cincinnati was announced as the newest expansion team to join Major League Soccer.(Photo: Sam Greene/The Enquirer)

Cincinnati’s recent job growth and renaissance is also accompanied by greater opportunity and inclusion for all. A criticism that I have heard echoed in and outside of City Hall is that our city’s wonderful renaissance is not progressive. A small but loud group of critics claim that people are being left behind by our economic growth. They view the businesses that bring jobs to our city as adversaries rather than partners. I have rejected this approach. I have chosen collaboration because when we work together for the greater good, everybody does better.

It is much better to ensure greater access to a growing economy rather than try to divide a shrinking pie. Accordingly, embracing job growth is a prerequisite to a progressive city.

While our leaders in Washington, D.C., must offer national policies to strengthen our country’s shrinking middle, by forging public-private partnerships, we are urgently doing all that we can locally to expand our city’s middle class. We have passed laws when appropriate and have used collaboration whenever possible to achieve a more progressive city.

We have increased our city’s living wage to $15 per hour for all city workers, expanded coverage to part-time workers and indexed it to inflation. The national minimum wage should be raised, and the earned income tax credit should be expanded, but that is not within the city’s control. However, our local minimum wage is helping many families earn a living for their hard work. City Council has also established the first paid leave policy for men and women.

The city has also tripled our investment into job training and emergency services since I took office. These investments have contributed to poverty reduction in our community over the past five years.

As for equal opportunity for all, our city is making real progress. Our city is nationally heralded for the police community agreement known as the Collaborative Agreement. Now, we are refreshing this agreement to address implicit bias and modern issues such as body-worn cameras.

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When I was elected mayor, the city only hired African-American businesses for three percent of its annual contracts. We are now averaging nearly 20 percent. We have further to go, but improving inclusive outcomes six-fold in just four years is a significant accomplishment.

We are building a more inclusive and welcoming city.

Prior to our administration, the city had an unfavorable reputation for LGBTQ+ rights. For the first time, and throughout each year of our administration, we have earned a perfect 100 percent score from the Human Rights Campaign.

Recognizing the many contributions immigrants bring to our community and economy, we also established municipal ID cards and Cincinnati Compass so new Cincinnatians can better acclimate to our city.

The Child Poverty Collaborative (CPC) is raising millions of private dollars to help families struggling with bills that can set them back. The CPC also includes the voluntary commitment of over 150 employers to re-evaluate internal corporate practices to be more worker friendly. For example, companies are trying to arrange work schedules to help employees access public transit, consider hiring ex-felons when appropriate, and providing life coaches and counseling to low-income employees. These companies aren’t required by the city to do these things, but they do because they care and because I and other community leaders asked them to.

This public-private collaboration to reduce poverty is truly unprecedented in the country. While we have much more work to do, we can be proud of what we are doing and how many people are being helped. We live in a caring community.

None of these efforts will matter if our region’s economy doesn’t grow. A rising tide lifts all boats.

I have unabashed pride in bringing in new jobs to the city, whether its landing Mercy’s headquarters in Bond Hill, the Children’s Hospital expansion in Avondale, or FC Cincinnati in the West End. Over the past five years, we have added thousands of jobs.

Increasingly, there are calls to oppose these job growth projects or to demand concessions from these employers. Such a change in direction would have prevented these projects from happening. That approach will deter future growth and is an existential threat to our city’s progressive prosperity.

The greatest remedy to poverty is a job, and I do not apologize for prioritizing economic growth in all parts of our city, including, but not limited to, historic neighborhoods that have lacked economic investment for decades. In fact, convincing companies to locate in historically distressed neighborhoods is the definition of progressive and inclusive growth.

The bottom line: progressive and pro-growth values are not mutually exclusive.

Over the past five years, serious crime is down significantly, jobs are up, neighborhoods are optimistic, and our population is growing again.